JA Programs | Junior Achievement of Southwest Florida

JA It's My Future® Blended Model

JA It's My Future Blended Model offers middle school students practical information to help prepare them for the working world. Students will develop the personal-branding and job-hunting skills needed to earn a job.

Following participation in the program, students will be able to:

Develop the personal-branding and job-hunting skills needed to earn a job.

Research potential careers.

Create a basic resume.

Recognize appropriate behavior for an interview.

Differentiate between soft and technical skills.

JA It's My Future is recommended for students in grades 6, 7, and 8. It consists of six 45-minute sessions led by a volunteer, with Additional Opportunities offered throughout.

All JA programs are designed to support the skills and competencies identified by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. JA programs also correlate to state standards in social studies, English, and mathematics, and to Common Core State Standards.

Program Sessions

Session One: My Brand

Students learn that they have their own personal brand and that the brand they build today will reflect on them in the future. They examine well-known logos to learn how individuals and companies create their brands and build their reputations. They assess their personal characteristics to define their own brands and then develop logos to represent themselves.

Session Two: Career Paths and Clusters

Students are introduced to the 16 career clusters and the pathways through them. They take a career interest survey and learn about potential jobs within their preferred clusters. They share job information with other members of the class and discuss the importance of all jobs within a community.

Session Three: High-Growth Careers

Students learn about the importance of being aware of which fields are growing and which are declining when making decisions about their own careers. They play a game that introduces information about high-growth occupations.

Session Four: Career Mapping

Students see how early experiences can build transferable skills that contribute to future job success. They look at the lives of celebrities, focusing on the life experiences that led to their success. They learn about career maps by examining a sample and then create their own.

Session Five: On the Hunt

Students are introduced to the basics of looking, applying, and interviewing for a job. They play a game in which they must identify two truths and a myth about the job search process. They learn the fundamentals of creating a resume and engage in a simulation in which they identify appropriate skills for various jobs and decide on where to highlight those skills on a resume.

Session Six: Soft Skills

Students learn about the differences between technical and soft skills and why both are essential for getting and keeping a job. Students also complete a soft skills self-evaluation to determine which skills they already have and which they can work toward gaining. Finally, they role-play situations that require strong soft skills.